A man leaves a polling booth in San Bartolome, Mexico, after casting his vote Sunday. The once-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party, which was voted out of the presidency in 2000 after 71 years in power, led in polls leading up to the election.

MEXICO CITY — Presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto leads Mexico’s elections with about 40 percent of the vote in early exit polls Sunday, signaling a return of his long-ruling party to power after a 12-year hiatus.

Conservative National Action Party candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota conceded, saying none of the exit polls favored her — the first female candidate for a major party in Mexico. Her party held the presidency for 12 years after kicking out Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in 2000.

Vazquez Mota garnered little more than 23 percent in exit polls released by Milenio and TV Azteca networks. Former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had about 30 percent of the vote.

The PRI held a strong lead throughout the campaign. The party, voted out of the presidency in 2000 after 71 years in power, also appeared likely to retake at least a plurality in the two houses of Congress and some governorship.

“Enrique Pena Nieto appears to be accomplishing what many thought would never happen again: the return of a strong and dynamic PRI,” said Eric Olson of the Washington-based Mexico Institute. “The question: How will they govern?”

The party has been bolstered by voter fatigue with a sluggish economy and the sharp escalation of a drug war that has resulted in roughly 50,000 deaths over the past six years. Many see their victory as inevitable.

At the PRI headquarters in Mexico City, a party atmosphere was building as sound technicians, waiters and an army of reporters waited in a large white tent in the party complex patio.

“If I vote for someone else, it’s still a vote for Pena Nieto. We know he’s going to win,” said María Teresa Alva Cornejo, 60, a housewife in Mexico City. “I hope he does things well.”

There were few reports of problems, though some polling stations ran out of ballots and at least nine people were arrested in the southern state of Chiapas for trying to pass ballots pre-marked the PRI.

Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire said that across the country, federal security forces were working closely with local and state authorities, as well as electoral officials, to guard the peace during the vote.

Sergio Ortega, a 31-year-old businessman from the city of Guadalajara, said he would vote against Pena Nieto to try to prevent return of the PRI. “He had too much favoritism. They played many tricks,” Ortega said.

Pena Nieto has cast himself as a pragmatic economic moderate in the tradition of the last three PRI presidents. He has called for greater private investment in Mexico’s state-controlled oil industry, and has said he will try to reduce violence by attacking crimes that hurt ordinary citizens while de-emphasizing the pursuit of drug kingpins.

The 45-year-old Pena Nieto has been dogged by allegations that he overspent his $330 million campaign funding limit and has received favorable coverage from Mexico’s television giant, Televisa.

Lopez Obrador, 58, was a center-leftist as Mexico City mayor and pioneered some programs that Pena Nieto emulated in the neighboring State of Mexico, such as local pensions for the elderly. He alienated many voters with his refusal to recognize the narrow victory of National Action’s Felipe Calderon in 2006, declaring himself “legitimate president” and mounting protests that gridlocked much of the capital for weeks.

Vazquez Mota, 51, is a former secretary of education and social development in the conservative administrations of President Vicente Fox and his successor, Calderon.

Enrique pena nieto

The 45-year-old former governor, who is married to a soap-opera star, has led polls throughout the race. Final pre-election polls showed him with a lead of 8 to 17 percentage points. Opponents say he received behind-the-scenes support from disliked former leaders of his party, and from Mexico’s two market-dominating television networks, allegations he denies. He has suggested allowing private investment in Mexico’s state-run petroleum company and de-emphasizing arrests of drug-cartel bosses in favor of reducing violent crimes that most affect ordinary citizens.

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